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IVF Success

The babies turned 10-months-old yesterday. Every month I say this, but how is that possible?! Month 9 was by far my favorite. They had a lot of firsts this past month. Winter started regular crawling quite quickly (instead of army crawling), opening presents for the first time a week before Christmas, their first Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, their first snow since being home from the NICU and their first colds. I could’ve done without that last part but we all survived.

I’ve started planning their first birthday party, which just typing out for you is giving me major anxiety. The actual turning one part, not the party planning. Truth be told, if it were up to me alone, I wouldn’t throw a big, giant birthday party. Porter and Winter aren’t going to remember it and they have everything they could ever need already. To me it’s just a formality. We’re holding off on throwing the party until May, instead of March, so that we can be outside. On the day of their real birthday, I’m thinking I’d like to take them to their first photo booth and start a yearly tradition.

Our babes are doing so well with their milestones, especially for being as early as they were. Their physical therapy is now down to every other week and we’re focusing on building strength and balance so they can pull to stand, stand and walk. Winter is already pulling up to stand and walking along furniture. She’s getting a bit brazen and lets go without remembering she can’t really stand by herself yet. Yesterday she stood up from a seated position without holding on to anything a few times, but once she’s up she needs something to hold onto to balance. Porter is constantly up on his hands and knees rocking back and forth, trying so hard to crawl. He’s getting really mad that he hasn’t gotten it yet, but he will. He does really well with his motor skills, he loves to play with his ‘pound-a-peg’ toy. He loves drumsticks and his drum. He constantly hits the sticks together and I can’t help but think he’s going to be a rockstar someday, haha!

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Porter’s story is going to be a bit more lengthy than Winter’s. I’m going to split it up into 3 parts so bear with me.

After determining that Porter hadn’t grown in more than two weeks, the decision was made to have a c-section to get him out into the world to get him the help he needed. He was born quickly and came out with a cry. I hadn’t expected to hear him cry, but was so glad he did. He needed CPAP for a short while, then a nasal cannula. He had a line inserted into his belly to give him nutrients because he was too tiny to try to eat. Like his sister, he was jaundice and couldn’t maintain his temperature. He also had borderline low blood sugars, an issue that remains today. Porter had far more ups and downs than we expected. We would take two steps forward, and one step back.

The first real scare was when they thought he might have NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis). He had some bloody, mucousy stools. They stopped feeding him, hooked him up to an IV, began a 7-10 day course of two antibiotics, took blood for tests and a culture and spinal fluid was taken for a culture. I was called around 2am to be told all of this. It was the only time we received a middle-of-the-night call from a NICU doctor. I googled NEC which was a terrible decision. I went to the hospital to meet with the doctors and nurses and to sit by Porter’s bedside. It was incredibly scary and I lost my shit. Thankfully, some of our favorite staff were there with me and we hugged and cried and they forced me to drink water. He spent 4 days without food, his only nutrients were through an IV.

Porter was anemic from birth. At one point his platelet count was pretty low, 45k, when it should be between 150k-450k. This freaked us out as Kyle had a blood disorder when he was a child. Porter had a very pale appearance most of the time. His blood work showed that his body was working hard to replace the blood cells that die off after birth, but it wasn’t working quickly enough. We decided to give him a transfusion. When a transfusion is done, it stops the body’s natural process of rebuilding cells, so we waited as long as we could before doing the transfusion. Luckily, it helped.

His alkaline phosphatase was elevated, which meant that his bones were in danger of being fractured or broken easily. The hospital had to take precautions so that everyone knew to ‘handle him with care’.

His blood sugars were low. We tried to control them with food, that didn’t work. We tried feeding every 2 hours, we tried continuous feeding, we tried fortifying his food to have extra calories but nothing worked. We had to start him on a medicine called diazoxide. It helped to maintain his sugar levels, but made him retain fluid. He started to sound congested because there was so much fluid built up in his face and nasal cavity. He started to not be able to eat the volume he was previously eating. He was so swollen. Eventually he was started on a diuretic to reduce the fluid retention, but we were never able to fully get rid of the congested sounds. He really struggled with his bottle feeding once he started the medicine. The inflammation and fluid retention in his nasal cavity was so bad that we removed the NG tube since it was just taking up more room. He was able to take ‘enough’ food by mouth though we wish he could’ve been drinking more. He was diagnosed with congenital hyperinsulinism, basically his body produces too much insulin and in turn his blood sugars are too low. Our hospital isn’t very familiar with this particular issue so things were probably not handled the way they should have been. This is Porter’s biggest issue today. He is still on the medicine and could be for some time. It’s hard to tell. We expect he will ‘outgrow’ the issue but there are no guarantees.

As you can see, Porter isn’t too thrilled that his face became extremely swollen from his sugar meds

Porter developed hernias from his belly down into his scrotum that had to be surgically repaired. This was the last step before he could come home. The surgery was performed on May 12th. Porter was discharged two days later.

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It’s been far too long since I’ve blogged. I’m settling in to life as a twin mom, I think. I hope. It’s like joining fight club only cuter and more badass…obvi. I’d like to share our NICU journeys with you all. I decided to start with Winter because her story is short and sweet-ish.

By all accounts, I thought that Winter (baby B) would’ve been the one to have issues. Very early on, she started measuring behind her brother. In fact, at one point the RE’s office told me to ‘hope for the best but prepare for the worst’. Later on we discovered her umbilical cord inserted into the side of her placenta instead of the center which can cause growth restriction or a whole host of other issues. How wrong I was. The morning I found out I’d be delivering my babies at 33 weeks 0 days, I had a sinking feeling of guilt. Winter was doing just fine in the womb, despite the ultrasound techs concern that she could have coarctation of the aorta. But we couldn’t very well leave her behind, so she came along for the ride.

Her delivery was tough. She was stuck up near my rib cage. She needed to be pushed from the outside and pulled from the inside. The doctors had to be careful not to tug on her umbilical cord due to her issue with how it attached to the placenta. She was bruised over her feet, legs and groin area from all the man-handling. She was quiet. There was no cry. I didn’t know it at the time and didn’t find out until she was sent home and I read over her discharge summary but she needed to be resuscitated. There was no cry because there was no breathing. I’ve never talked about that with anyone before. She was brought over to me for a quick picture and I asked if she had hair… It was the first time I saw her and all I said was, “Does she have hair?” In my defense, multiple ultrasound techs had made mention to her having a full head of hair during scans. She was whisked up to the NICU. They hooked her up to CPAP for extra oxygen flow, put her under the ultraviolet lights for jaundice and a heat lamp to keep her warm. She wore an eye mask to protect her eyes. She was on an IV for nutrients and any medications she might need. She hated IV’s. Her body would reject them quicky and they had to be placed over and over. She quickly came off of CPAP and just needed a tiny nasal cannula to give just a bit of extra oxygen flow for about three days. She was given an NG tube (nose tube) to receive nutrients through. Her main issue was learning to suck, swallow and breathe in the right order. This remained her biggest struggle throughout her stay. At one point, this were going really well. She was moved to a nice, quiet, lower traffic corner of the NICU. I was pretty sure she’d be coming home soon.

The funny thing (not at all funny really) about the NICU is when they tell you it’s a roller coaster ride, you get it but you don’t actually get it. Until the coaster reaches the crest and all of the sudden you’re whipped back down to the bottom. The low point of Winter’s NICU stay came after her brother was put on NEC watch. Necrotizing Enterocolitis is a very dangerous stomach thing. Do NOT google it unless you want to hear terrible things, including a 25%+ mortality rate. A nurse and nurse practitioner, who were both not very familiar with Winter, decided her belly looked distended. They measure the babies bellies in the NICU and hers was measuring a little bigger than the previous day. She showed no other symptoms of NEC but because of Porter’s possible NEC issues, they assumed Winter needed to be treated the same way. She was brought back into the busy part of the NICU, undressed, put under a heat lamp, hooked up to an IV and given antibiotics and made NPO for 24 hours (not fed). She was PISSED. And I was heart broken. The next day when blood work came back normal and she didn’t show any other symptoms, they decided to start feeding her again. I more think they were tired of hearing her scream because this little lady gets hangry. She worked on her bottle feeding. We removed her NG tube on Easter for pictures and were hopeful it would stay out, but it didn’t. She needed another day or so of practice until she got the hang of it. She was moved, along with her brother, to a private section of the NICU. A few days later, on April 12th, she was discharged one day shy of one month old.

As far as NICU stays go, hers was really pretty calm. I freaked out a bit with the NEC scare, mostly because her being healthy and such a rockstar was what kept me going through the struggles we were facing with Porter. Sometimes I think I forget she was just a 4lb preemie.

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I don’t consider myself to be a superstitious person…until I realize I am. On February 13th, a Friday, I was released from the hospital after one night. I was admitted because Baby A was small and had some flow issues from his umbilical cord back to his placenta. After overnight monitoring, they decided I could go home and just report to the Maternal Fetal Medicine office twice a week for ultrasounds and non-stress tests. As we left the hospital I had wanted to say, “Maybe Friday the 13th isn’t all that bad after all!” but we were driving home and I figured it would be best to wait until we arrived home safely, just in case. A few short days later I was admitted to the hospital again because the flow issues continued and Baby A hadn’t really grown. This time I was there for the long haul. I could write an entire post on how miserable I was living in the hospital, but I will spare you. My husband started bringing in the crock pot and cooking homemade meals for me once I was sick of the hospital food. I was scheduled to have an ultrasound with growth scan on Friday, March 13th. That also happened to be the day that we reached 33 weeks. I’ve always considered 33 to be my lucky number, and I have no idea why. My ultrasound showed the same flow issues, and the growth measurements showed no change over the last two weeks in Baby A’s size. They estimated him to be about 2lbs 12oz, or the size of a typical 29 weeker. We had also seen, in both babies, the potential that they could have coarctation of their aortas that could require heart surgery. The doctor told me not to eat or drink anything and said he was going to talk to the team and he would get back to me. He returned with the news that we would be having a scheduled c-section that day around 3pm. An hour later, there was an emergency and we were told our c-section was pushed back and it would be sometime that evening.

I was running on adrenalin. I was excited but incredibly nervous as well. I knew that delivering the babies at 33 weeks meant they’d be going up to the NICU, likely until they reached 40 weeks. The OB for my office that day was a doctor I had never met before, I wish my doctor from MFM could’ve delivered me. I was taken to the OR, Kyle was left in the hallway while they inserted the spinal to numb me. I was shaking uncontrollably. One of the anesthesiologists was super great with me and basically held me while the whole thing was happening. After it was in, I was laid down and exposed and Kyle was able to come in. I decided I was going to tell my toes to move, so I did, but they didn’t move (obviously). I had a small panic attack. I felt like I was in some horror movie where I had been put in a bathtub and given a drug that paralyzed me and could just see the running water coming up to my mouth and nose and I couldn’t get away from it. That’s a tad dramatic, but I didn’t like it.

When they began to perform the c-section, I had the weirdest sensations in my body. I wasn’t in any pain but could feel all kinds of pulling and pushing. At 4:58pm, Porter was brought into this world weighing in at 2lbs 12oz, just as predicted. He was whisked into a room off of the OR to be assessed by the NICU team. Baby B was stuck way up in my abdomen so they had to push her down, again the weirdest feeling ever. At 4:59 they pulled Winter out of my belly by her leg, she was 4lbs 4oz. She had some immediate bruising from being pushed and pulled out. She was also whisked into the other room and Kyle went with them. I thought that would be it, that I wouldn’t get to see my babies. Kyle came back with pictures and one of the NICU Nurse Practitioners surprised us and said that I should get to see the babies. For a few precious seconds they held Porter next to me so I could see him and Kyle snapped a few pictures. Then they brought Winter over and showed me her head full of dark hair. And then they were gone.

Porter (left), Winter (right)

I was left behind while they closed me up, which seemed to take forever and I was wheeled into recovery. At some point that evening, they wheeled my hospital bed into the NICU so I could see each of the babies. I don’t really remember much, luckily Kyle took a ton of pictures to show me later.

Long story short, I never considered myself to be superstitious, but it turns out I am. Friday the 13th isn’t always bad, for me it’s a lucky day. And my lucky number finally made some sense. I had made it to 33 weeks pregnant exactly when my babies decided they had to make their grand entrances into this world. Within a matter of a minute, our lives have been forever changed.

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A few days ago, while undergoing an ultrasound to check on Baby A’s umbilical cord flow, the ultrasound tech said, “I’ll be right back.” She left the room and I knew this wasn’t normal. She returned with the Perinatologist and showed her my ultrasound. They were talking about our son’s heart. I heard things like ‘I see dilation’ and ‘the flow should only be going one direction’ and ‘narrowing’ among other things. The doctor calmly told me that she wanted to contact one of two Pediatric Cardiologists who works with our hospital because she isn’t an expert on the hearts of babies.

I immediately went into a panic. What did any of this mean? What is wrong with my baby? We waited and waited and heard nothing. The next morning I was taken back to the ultrasound room for an echo on the baby and told that they would be making a disc for the cardiologist to review. We waited hours and heard nothing. In the evening, I asked my nurse if she had heard anything. She checked the order and told me that it likely wouldn’t be looked at until the following day. Two days had passed before we were given the chance to see the cardiologist. He told us the disc was empty and I’d need another ultrasound. So back down I went to the ultrasound room and had another ultrasound performed. Hours later, the doctor finally came in to talk to us. It was a lot of big words and fancy mumbo jumbo that really went over our heads.

We will not know for sure until our children are born, but the ultrasound showed a narrowing of the aorta (coarctation of the aorta is the official name). It isn’t affecting the baby much while in the womb so this issue by itself would not require us to be delivered early, but obviously Baby A has other issues as well. Once the babies are born, they would do an echo on Baby A to get a better look to see if the issue needs intervention. The doctor explained, after verifying who our insurance company is, that he would recommend us to go to CHOP or Hershey Medical after our baby is born, assuming he needs intervention. It could mean heart surgery. HEART SURGERY. on a baby. maybe even on a preemie.

He assured us that this is a fairly common problem, and the surgery is very low risk. But heart surgery is still heart surgery, right? It sounds pretty scary to me. Basically, they’d go in and remove the narrow part of his aorta and either sew the two ends back up, or add a patch and sew the two ends to the patch.

This was right about the time I started wondering what we had done to deserve this. Could I have caused this? Is it karma for something I’ve said or done in the past? Hearing things like this about your child, it shakes you. It makes you wonder why in the hell some crack whores are able to get pregnant and birth healthy babies but the person who has wanted it for as long as they can remember, can’t.

Someone said to me after I discovered I needed IVF that things like this happen to people like me because I want it so badly; that if something like this happened to them, they’d give up and just go without kids. At the time this response really got under my skin. I’m realizing how true it really is though. It’s unfair, but true. Because I so desperately want a family, I will have to fight more obstacles. They say nothing worth having ever comes easy, right? So we will fight, Baby A will fight. When he’s born, maybe there will be nothing wrong, maybe he won’t need surgery. But if he does, he will fight through that too and we will fight along with him.

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I debated whether I should write this post. First off, let me start by saying that I’m not ‘outwardly’ religious, meaning I won’t preach to you, I won’t try to argue with you, I don’t go to church (though we may want that to change for the babies) and I rarely talk about prayer and things of the like. Second, we seem to live in a culture that has more depression than ever, yet no one wants to talk about it and especially not in the pregnancy/mommy world. I have not been diagnosed with depression or anything like that, but after yesterday I feel myself slipping into this place that I don’t recognize. It’s been a long time since I felt like this – like since middle school (which is a post for another time, maybe even for a different blog). Yesterday when I was in the hospital, I got teary-eyed once and my husband helped to calm me down. I think I was mostly in shock at everything that was happening. Though I will say, when I got up yesterday morning, I just had this aching feeling that we were going to be making a hospital visit. Anyway, I came home last night, texted our moms and my sister-in-law and wrote a blog post. The rest of the night went on like it normally does.

This morning I woke up at 4:20 am – anyone who is or has been pregnant can understand this. I then laid in bed from 4:25 – 9:25 (with one more pee break in between), but not a wink of sleep. I have so many things racing through my brain. I was feeling low, really low. It’s only gotten worse throughout the day. I keep thinking: have I caused this, is this because I haven’t enjoyed every ounce of my pregnancy so far, were the doctors right to tell us that we should only transfer 1 embryo, is my cervix the issue or is it that there are two babies and not much room, could I have prevented this, is it because I rarely take my vitamins since they make me feel sick, please let them stay put until 36 weeks, if they can’t stay put please, please don’t take them from me. I shed a few tears this morning and at different points during the day, but tried to hold back because I don’t want to upset my husband or totally fall apart. Stress isn’t good for the babies, but how the hell do you not stress about this? After eventually getting up and starting the day, my husband was working on a shelf for the nursery closet. I snuck in while he was in the garage and just glided away in our glider. I stared at the book ledges that are already full of books, the cribs that are set up (minus mattresses and sheets and whatnot), the area rug on the ground and the baby books I received in the mail, from a still unknown sender. Tears welled up in my eyes. How long would it be before my babies would be using this room? If born prematurely, how long would they have beds in the NICU vs. beds at home where they belong? What kind of complications could they face if they came now, or next week, or at 30 weeks or 32? Could they survive if they came now? Do I have any control over any of this? Will I even know if I go into pre-term labor since the symptoms can be a bit different from regular labor and since I’ve never done this before? All of these things are weighing heavily on me today.

I’ve never prayed as much in my life as I have since right before beginning our IVF cycle. I try to keep them short, as I know there are people out there with ‘real’ problems who probably need more help than I could ever understand. And, they’re pretty much always the same prayers. At this point it’s something like, “Please help these babies to grow big, strong and healthy. Please let them stay in as long as possible, like to 36+ weeks. Please keep our family safe.” Short, sweet, to the point. I don’t know if I’m doing it right, but that’s what I do. I truly believe that through this process we have not been alone. Prayers have already been answered. IVF being possible, my hormone levels rising and then holding steady so our cycle wasn’t cancelled, getting pregnant, finding out it was two babies and getting us this far. So this is what I do when I enter a dark place – I pray and I hope that I’m heard and that these babies are going to be okay.

I realize this method doesn’t work for everyone, but what I want this blog post to say is that depression or signs of sadness during pregnancy and mommyhood are a lot more common than people like to admit. Do what you need to do to pull yourself out of a slump. Call a doctor, friend or family member. Don’t struggle alone. Open up and be truthful about your journey because it isn’t all rainbows and fairytales. You are not alone. I am not alone.

I also have to thank a very special group of women, whom I’ve never actually met in person. The ‘trying-to-conceive’ community (mostly on instagram, but a few have found me through my blog too) has been a huge support. Everyone is sending their well-wishes, happy thoughts, prayers and their own scary stories that turned out to have happy endings. I couldn’t do this without all of you. You know just what I’m going through. I feel your love, and your support. So thank you, thank you, thank you!

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Expecting twins can be a little overwhelming. On top of that, they’re my first babies and so I’m totally clueless. After talking with my sister-in-law who has an 18-month-old and doing research via other blogs, I knew there were some items I ‘had to have’ and some items that were just wants and some that are a total shot in the dark.

Knowing that my family is throwing me a shower and that everyone is so excited for us, I knew everyone would want to help out. I tried to find safe, stylish items that were also affordable. With some things – I’m talking to you stroller and car seat manufacturer’s – there is no ‘inexpensive’ option. And obviously, you wouldn’t want to skimp on either of those items since they need to be super safe for babies.

Here is what I came up with for my twin registry must haves.

1. Cloth Diapers – while I know this isn’t a good option for everyone, I will be a stay at home mom and it’ll be easier for me to throw in a load of laundry than to pack up two babies and drive to the store every time I run out. After much research, I’ve chosen Bumgenius 4.0 all-in-one diapers (both newborn and one-size diapers). I want the newborn diapers since our babies will likely be smaller at birth and stay small a little bit longer than singleton babies.

2. Bumbos – I’ve heard mixed reviews on the bumbo seats from other moms. Some love them and depend on them and others haven’t found much use for them. I plan to use them so that I can take a shower (and just put the babies in their seats on the floor outside my glass shower), while the babies are taking baths but not quite stable enough to sit up on their own the entire time, and when mommy just needs to have her hands free.

3. My Brest Friend Nursing Pillow – this particular nursing pillow can be used when tandem feeding twins, which is what I plan to do more often than not. The quicker I can get them both fed and back to sleep, the more sleep I can get! (or at least that’s what I’m hoping for)

4. Baby Jogger City Mini Double – this stroller is a side-by-side, which some people don’t like, but I do. It’s the ‘mini’ version so it fits through a standard size door. It also folds really easily. After test driving strollers when we were like 3 days pregnant, or something like that, we knew we needed something compact, lightweight and easy to maneuver since I’ll likely be using it a lot on my own. And as far as strollers go, while I had sticker shock, it’s one of the most affordable, highly-rated, double strollers around. The other thing to consider is that because this stroller is compact, it cannot accommodate two car seats at the same time. They do sell compact prams for infants to lay flat in the stroller.

5. Changing Pad – this changing pad is a little on the pricey side, however, it doesn’t need a cover and easily cleans. It’s been used in hospitals and doctors offices and gets really great reviews. Being a slight germaphobe, knowing I can just lysol off any poop blow-outs instead of having to wash a cover and worry that the poop germs already made their home inside my foam changing pad, will help me sleep at night.

6. Bottles – I chose this bottle option, even though I’m planning to do a lot of breast feeding, it’ll be helpful to have someone else be able to feed them every now and then. This bottle is designed to imitate the ‘real deal’ and it’s sold at Target, so it’s for me!

7. Crib – cribs can get so expensive. Do I love the look of a really pricey Restoration Hardware crib? Sure I do, but I just simply cannot justify it. Then after doing research on multiple blogs, I kept seeing this super simple, wooden crib and found that it’s from Ikea! It’s very affordable, can be adjusted to two levels, one side comes off to turn into a toddler bed and fits regular crib sized mattresses. These were generously gifted to me from my mom, and because she’s concerned our babies won’t know what colors are – because I LOVE neutrals – we are working on a little project to add color to the crib rungs/spindles to get this sort of look only without this kind of price tag.

8. Rock n’ Play – this is an item that my sister-in-law received at her shower. It wasn’t something she registered for and initially we thought it would be something she wouldn’t use, and then my littlest nephew was born. He slept in this at the beginning as he wasn’t quite ready for the big, wide world of his crib just yet and he slept in this when he travelled. She told me it was one of the items I ‘must’ get.

9. Baby Book – for all our memories and keepsakes. I stumbled upon this one at Anthropologie and thought it was really cute.

10. Teething necklace – I’m not real comfortable with the idea of teething necklaces for my babies to wear. I just fear it breaking and them choking on the little pieces, but that doesn’t mean that mommy can’t wear a necklace that the babies can play with and chew on.

11. Baby Monitor – when it comes to a baby monitor, at first, I wasn’t going to get anything fancy. Their room is right across the hall from ours. After watching my nephew a few times, I found myself just staring at the little screen watching him sleep, checking to make sure he was still breathing and just taking in all of the cuteness. Then we found this monitor, which can zoom and pan the room. It comes with a second camera (and you can add up to four) for if/when the babies move into separate rooms. It is pricey, but not a whole lot more than some of the single camera monitors.

12. Noise Machine – I chose the Baby Shusher because it’s gotten really great reviews. It can sit on a dresser top, next to a crib, can be thrown in a stroller or next to the car seat.

13. Car Seats – this can be one of the most overwhelming items to do research on. There are so many brands and options, newborn car seats, convertible car seats, the list goes on. For me, I wanted a convertible car seat that could fit tiny babies (this one goes as low as 4lbs) and will convert all the way up into a booster seat when the kids are older. So I will only need one car seat per child, forever, period, that’s it. Also, Maxi Cosi is said to have lightweight car seats compared to some others that can get really, really heavy. Since I’ll have two, this is important.

14. 4 Moms Rockaroo Baby Swing – There are a ton of baby swings out there, but this one is all the rage. It gets really great reviews, and even though this is the lower model, I think it will help me out just fine.

15. Play Mat – there are a million play mats out there for babies as well. I wanted one that wasn’t extra loud or bright and that I could add toys to and fit both babies underneath (at least at the beginning). Ikea won again!

16. Diaper Bag – this is another place where options are vast, ranging from designer to affordable, stylish to basic, leather to canvas, bright to neutral, tote vs. cross body vs. backpack and so many more. Of course I was really attracted to a leather version that converted from a tote, to a cross body bag and to a backpack but spending $200+ seemed kind of ridiculous. I found this one, at Target, and I love the color of the bag and love the color of the inside and changing pad. I don’t need designer, I just need it to hold diapers, a change of clothes and some bottles and toys.

Those are my must haves, but trust me when I say I have so much more on my registry. There are so many little things that are needed that you forget about until you have to put a registry together. One more note about my registry is that I decided to have it through BabyList and not register at any actual stores. So far, I haven’t heard any complaints about this and it allows me to add things from any website making it easier on me to not have to settle. It also shows where the item is the lowest price so that anyone being so generous as to buy us something can get the very best deal!

Sorry that this post is so long! After the babies are born I’ll be sure to do an update to let you know about which items I actually use most often and if there’s any I would forgo if I could do it all over.